Fifth Avenue Forum

Indy at NOLA was a complete **** show.



-The track looks like a club racing track like Roebling. Seems like something a farmer made on his back 40 to play with in retirement.
- I gripe about the talent level in Indy a lot. The 4 straight restarts with a crash doesn't help. Billed at 75 laps, they completed 47. Almost all the laps from ~20 to the end were caution.
- Bourdais got hosed in qualifying, but it didn't matter because the session was red flagged and thrown out. Then he took a car to the face in the race.
- Rain in Louisiana in April? No kidding.
- Crew chief for one of the rookies got ran over and thrown into a wall.
- The runoff to the braking zone on the longest straight is the staging/burnout area for a drag strip. It has no traction. Think about that.
- The winner pitted on lap 13 and rode the cautions all the way to the end.

Ugly event all around. Yeesh.

Not sure what to think of the F1 race in China:

I forgot this, a random dude ran out and pushed a car onto a hot track where it then stalled in the apex:



Was browsing reddit and saw this quip:

Just be glad they weren't South African marshals

What a deep and dark joke. How many folks on reddit do you think get it? 1%?

Indy at NOLA was a complete **** show.

- Bourdais got hosed in qualifying, but it didn't matter because the session was red flagged and thrown out. Then he took a car to the face in the race.

I know I'm talking to myself, but I'm fascinated with how bad this event went.

If only they had left the sprinklers on, it wouldn't have been half bad.
16 laps green when everybody was on wets.
After those first 16, they ran laps 20, 27, 31, 39, 40, 43 under green. 6 "green" laps, and that doesn't even count: Lap 20 was an accident coming to the green (Hawksworth in the tires outside the last corner), Lap 27 was Coletti doing an impressive ricochet off the inner guardrail and continuing on, Lap 31 at least they gut to the 5th turn before Karam put it on the beach. Lap 39 was clean, but Karam looped it again in the final corner so I don't think they even got any racing on lap 40 done, and the three car pileup on the final restart happened in turn three. So by my count they probably only had 26 corners of racing after those first 16 laps, so that's 2 full green flag laps in the last 75 minutes of the race.

*** Show doesn't even come close. Nascar's tire debacles at Indy and Charlotte are tame compared to the level of fail Indycar showcased yesterday.

While watching it I kept thinking about Driven when they flipped upside down into the pond. I would not have been shocked to see that go down, except it would probably have to happen under green. Probably.

I recently downloaded Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500, which is free on Kindle Unlimited. I'll let everyone know if the book is any good.

- Crew chief for one of the rookies got ran over and thrown into a wall.

Suffered a leg laceration. Allegedly the jackman screamed at the driver to shut it off and get the f*** out of the car.

Indy at NOLA was a complete **** show.



-The track looks like a club racing track like Roebling. Seems like something a farmer made on his back 40 to play with in retirement.

That's because it is a club circuit. It has no business hosting a race at this level.

I don't follow the series, but I do follow some of the ex-CART/CC drivers on social media. I learned there was a race at this facility on Friday when JPM posted an on-board video. Near as I can tell, the only grandstands are along the main straight, and they are on the same side of the track as the pits.... which means, unless you are in the top five or six rows, the only parts of the cars you'll ever see are the roll hoops.

Not sure what to think of the F1 race in China:

Happy to see Ferrari keep pace, interested to see it at a course that isn't tailor made for the Mercs.

I will say this; Nico Rosberg has quickly become the most entertaining interview in F1. Not for good reasons, mind you.

I recently downloaded Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500, which is free on Kindle Unlimited. I'll let everyone know if the book is any good.

I have that book; completely fascinating. That engine epitomized Roger Penske's notion of the 'unfair advantage'.

While watching it I kept thinking about Driven when they flipped upside down into the pond. I would not have been shocked to see that go down, except it would probably have to happen under green. Probably.

'Driven' was originally supposed to be about F1, they had a big deal signing ceremony at Monza and everything. Then a few years later Bernie read the script and said, "Aw, hell no."

I recently downloaded Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500, which is free on Kindle Unlimited. I'll let everyone know if the book is any good.

Really enjoyed it. It's not too heavy on the technical details but just enough to show how large the task was. How they kept the whole thing so well under wraps was impressive.

IndyCar penalizes Hunter-Reay, others after NOLA

I'm not sure, was RHR remonstrating with Le Seb? "Why did you hit my car with your face????"

I recently downloaded Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500, which is free on Kindle Unlimited. I'll let everyone know if the book is any good.

Really enjoyed it. It's not too heavy on the technical details but just enough to show how large the task was. How they kept the whole thing so well under wraps was impressive.

Your assessment is spot on. I didn't realize the lengths they went through to keep it secret, and also all of the extra testing they did. They literally plowed snow off the racing line at Nazareth and were out there testing in the winter. It's also interesting that they managed to get 500 miles out of the engine only a couple days before reporting to Indy.

IndyCar penalizes Hunter-Reay, others after NOLA

I'm not sure, was RHR remonstrating with Le Seb? "Why did you hit my car with your face????"

Coyne should be penalized for letting Dracone near a car. Milka without the boobs.

I recently downloaded Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500, which is free on Kindle Unlimited. I'll let everyone know if the book is any good.

Really enjoyed it. It's not too heavy on the technical details but just enough to show how large the task was. How they kept the whole thing so well under wraps was impressive.

Your assessment is spot on. I didn't realize the lengths they went through to keep it secret, and also all of the extra testing they did. They literally plowed snow off the racing line at Nazareth and were out there testing in the winter. It's also interesting that they managed to get 500 miles out of the engine only a couple days before reporting to Indy.

That pushrod engine was a marvel. I think it has been unfairly maligned as one of the precipitating causes of The Split, but it's a moot point 20 years on.

Still amazed that CART/Champ Car manufacturers were able to create engines that revved up to over 15,000 using mechanical valve springs.

Does anyone really watch Indycar outside of the Indy 500?

(semi-serious - I know I don't. And sometimes the 500 is only because it was on at my parents' house while we were over there.

I mean, I watch more F1 than Indycar and I'm not really an F1 fan. F1 was good Sunday morning background TV. Then they moved to NBC and I haven't seen a race since the days of SPEED.

No. I was a huge CART/Indycar fan before the split, and I will carry an unbridled hatred for Tony George all of the remaining days of my life. Current Indycar racing is a hollow shell of what it once was, and I don't pay much attention at all.

The head of NBCSports claims that viewership for both Indy Car and F1 have increased dramatically in recent years; I'm not buying it. Even with a 30% increase y-o-y, Indy Car is still drawing less than half a million viewers on average. (In the dark days before Champ Car's collapse there were events where there more people at the race than watching on TV.) And they're in a run of about three consecutive years of being among the worst ratings for the 500 since the race was first broadcast live in its entirety in 1985 or 1986. And that's network FTA TV, not pay cable.

...I will carry an unbridled hatred for Tony George all of the remaining days of my life.

My wife was asking me over the weekend if I planned on ending my Long Beach boycott this year. I just....... can't. FTG isn't really involved with the management of the series any longer, but....... I can't.

I need to get back into open wheel....I preferred it to NASCAR growing up (though dirt track will always be #1) and loved Paul Tracy, but ever since CHAMP died I have lost interest.

Does anyone really watch Indycar outside of the Indy 500?

:sheepishly raises hand:

My first 500 was in 1988, and Indycar racing has been favorite flavor of motor racing ever since. I'm passionate about racing, but I've always had my heart in Indy. Through my rc racing series, I've know several former and current crew guys (my greatest compliment was that our series was more organized than Indycar, even if that does set the bar low). I've raced online against guys like Will Power and Sage Karam (he drives just as over his head there as in real life), like I'm sure dodint has.
After the split I still went to Indy, but also to the Gateway and Michigan CART races. I still watched the remains of Champcar, even after Penske jumped ship (I never really liked the Captain anyways) but once Chip left too the only professional group left was Newman/Haas and it showed.

Is it the same as it was in 1995? Absolutely not. But the series still has the greatest mix of tracks in the world. It could be improved (Road America, ahem) but there's no other place you get the full gamut of street circuits, natural road courses, short ovals, and super speedways. It has some very talented drivers, and its fair share of scrubs as well.

I'm a lot more likely to sit through the debacle that was NOLA then I am the Texas Cup race, and that one wasn't even a snoozer.

Current IndyCars look and sound almost preposterously goofy..... but then, you can pretty much say the same thing about F1 cars. I'm also not a fan of the 1.5 mile ovals like Texas and Iowa, altho it looks like they are the last of that breed left on the schedule. Everything else......... is CART 2.0.

Source of the post I've raced online against guys like Will Power and Sage Karam (he drives just as over his head there as in real life), like I'm sure dodint has.

I never got good with the Dallara. I've raced with the likes of Bryan Heitkotter and Patrick Long in sports cars though.

Will Power still has to be one of the best sports names ever, right behind Dick Trickle.

It's a shame Scott Speed sucked out loud.